Emotionally Attached

Emotionally draining. The perfect words to describe today. It is amazing how attached we become to a child within the hour we spend with them and how hard it is for us to then let them go, not knowing if we will ever see them again. We only exchange a few words but their smiles and tender hugs are enough to bring tear to our eyes.

I met two girls today who emotionally drained me and made it extremely hard to say goodbye. The first was at Juno's, an orphanage run by a man with an amazing heart who houses and feeds approximately 20 kids but extends his facility to educate nearly 100 within the surrounding community. As I stepped off the "Tap Tap" the kids sprinted over to us but it was a 14 year old girl who latched onto me. She ran up to me and hugged me tight before kissing me on the cheek and saying "Mwen Remen Ou" which means "I love you." This fourteen year old girl named "Francine", who has no family and is sleeping on a bed made of cardboard is telling me how much she loves me and how happy she is that I am here. Aren't we supposed to be the ones loving on them? The only words she said to me was her name and how old she was yet the whole time we were at Juno's she was holding me, with either an arm around my back or holding onto my arm. She didn't care that I was a different color, that I was sweating or that she had only met me minutes before. I had never experienced such love from a 14 year old girl before. During the worship times when we sung with the kid she just broke down into tears as she was singing "Glory to God." As I watched her worshiping I could see the light of Jesus shining through her and I kept thinking to myself "I want to experience that, I want to live with a passion like that for Jesus."

In the afternoon, my half of the group was supposed to go to The Home for the Sick and Dying Babies and I was so excited to just hold these little babies and love on them. However God obviously had a different plan for me. I was extremely disappointed to hear that my group was not allowed to go to the orphanage because they were closed for the day. I became rather frustrated with God as I was going to miss out on an opportunity which I had really been looking forward to all week. Instead the whole team went to Gertrude's, an orphanage for the disabled which I visited earlier this week. In my previous visit a lady handed me a 6 month old baby named "Louvre" who had recently been severely burnt. The right side of her precious little body was covered in blisters and scabs from the fire and on her right hand she only had a thumb and stubs for her other fingers. That whole visit I held this baby in my arms and she did not make a sound and ended up falling asleep in my arms. When I went back for this second visit I was not enthusiastic as I had already visited the orphanage. As we walked into the room for the toddlers and babies, the girl who I had previously held started squirming in her crib and wiggling her arms as if she remembered who I was. The smile that appeared on her face made it impossible for me to just leave her. Once again I ended up holding this precious baby girl for an hour in my arms as she eventually drifted off to sleep during the worship songs. The whole time I was so worried about accidentally bumping her burns or scabs and hurting her but she didn't make a sound. She was so content with just being held and I did not want to let her go. Even though half her body was completely scared she was the most beautiful baby girl I have ever seen. It makes it so hard for me to believe that someone would just abandon such a precious child. When it came time for us to leave, I laid down the sleeping child of
God and the tears just poured from my eyes. I later found out that I had been the first outsider to hold her since she had arrived there as previous groups were not allowed to touch her. It amazes me how all of this was part of God's plan, for me to just pour out my love on this little girl. I was so blessed just to be able to hold her in my arms, she truly was a living miracle.

By Jasmine Hearne